COMMERCE CITY — Peter Chandler let a wry smile come across his face. It’d been a long couple of weeks as he zig-zagged the country attending five college graduations for his quintuplets, four daughters and one son.

Chandler, coach of Class 3A Peak to Peak girls soccer, missed the second round, quarterfinals and semifinals while in Boulder (the University of Colorado), Denver (Regis University), Nebraska (Concordia University), Vermont (Norwich University), and Maine (the University of New England). Just as he was getting set to explain what it’d been like, missing those games before returning for the title match on Tuesday, his 23 other daughters came storming toward him at midfield — with the 3A championship trophy.

A swarm of white and blue engulfed their coach. Moments later, the Pumas gave their coach a Gatorade shower.

They’d missed him.

“All my kids graduated; I couldn’t be happier, I couldn’t be prouder,” Chandler, also the school’s athletic director, said later, still soggy from the water that had been dumped on him in celebration. Then he gestured toward the locker room at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, site of a continuing celebration. “I couldn’t be prouder of these girls, my other girls. It’s so much fun. As an athletic director, my day is packed, and I’m running out to practice at 3:30 and it’ the best part of the day.”

Joe Swanson and a host of assistants took over the team in his stead — and “This (championship) is theirs,” Chandler said. “They did that.”

He further pushed any responsibility for the title onto his players. “At this point,” Chandler said, “we put in subs, but they know what to do. Not a lot of coaching is going on at this point. We’re like fans.”

As for his kids’ graduations?

“Get this: of all the pinnings, commissionings, not one thing conflicted,” Chandler said. “This is the first year ever. Because usually (he and his wife) look at the calendar: ‘Oh, that’s not going to work. I’m going to have to go to that one, you’re going to have to go to this one.’ This year, it all worked.”

Comments Off on Peak to Peak coach watches quintuplets graduate, then leads his team to 3A girls soccer title

Neil Devlin, originally from the Philadelphia area, has covered high school sports in Colorado for more than 30 years, writing about the people, athletes and events that encompass the Rocky Mountain prep sports world.